The Bright Side
by ThePrimeOne
Summary: In a world full of black and white, all it takes is one glance to colour it with something special. Soulmate AU! Day 7 of Felannie Week 2019, prompt: Dark and Light.


His life had been dreary for as long as he could remember. Not entirely, of course. He had Sylvain, Ingrid and Dimitri to play with, and his brother Glenn to practice sparring with whenever he had the time. No, his life was quite colourful, ironically. But Felix always knew of two constants wherever he went: black and white. His vision was constantly clouded with a variety of those two shades.

And it got a young Felix feeling down more than he'd like.

"Papa? What is it like seeing in colour? How do you know what colour is?"

Rodrigue smiled at his youngest son. "Seeing in colour is like seeing the world in a whole new light. Everything is brighter and more alive than you can comprehend, little one," Rodrigue smiled, booping Felix on the nose. "Like your eyes for example. Though you can't tell, your eye colour is orange."

"Orange…? Like the fruit? Is it the same colour too? Are my eyes oranges?"

Rodriguez heartily laughed. "Yes, like the fruit, yes it's the same colour, and no, your eyes aren't the fruit orange," his father reiterated.

Felix scrunched his nose in confusion before pondering over what his father said again. "Ok, I think I get it… I guess. So when I see colour, that means that whoever made me see it is my soulmate?"

Rodrigue nodded and chuckled at how excited he was at the idea of meeting his soulmate.

"Yes, they are. When it happens, it will be one of the happiest times of your life. Very few moments of happiness come close to when I met your mother for the first time. I know it's very hard for you to understand, but when the time comes, you'll know what I'm talking about. It's something that just… clicks, in your head. Now come along now, let's go see your brother off. He will soon march with King Lambert's Royal Guard for Duscur, the first of one of his many duties as a great knight."

"Okay!"

It would be the last time he'd see his brother. From then on, Felix lost interest in soulmates. It no longer mattered to him what it meant to see in colour. All that mattered was strength. To become stronger than his brother ever was, so such a senseless murder would never happen again. Pushing his body to its absolute limits was the only thing that mattered to him, to the point that Felix privately swore off chasing any love or soulmates. His father picked up on this quickly, after finding Felix bruning proposals sent to him from lords of other lands, offering their daughters hands in marriage.

Felix's glare softened at the fire before him, having watched the letters burn and wither away. Even in spite of all that had happened, he still wondered what it was like to see in 'colour'. He knew that the fire before him lit up the room with its orange and red flames, but all he saw was a variety of black and white shades. He wondered if maybe, just maybe, one of the women whose fathers and mothers offered to Felix in marriage would be the one that would reveal to him what the fire would look like.

Or the colour of his blade.

Or blood.

Or maybe, he would feel something other than aggravating pain and sadness again for longer than a couple of hours at least.

"What nonsense," he grumbled, watching the fire flicker in and out.

_You're never going to be happy pushing down this path_, a voice said in his head. Felix balled his fists, growing ever tired of the voice of his brother Glenn haunting him in his head, speaking as if he were standing beside him.

"Don't start talking now," Felix growled under his breath. The voice seemed to obey for a little while before it decided to poke its head out again.

_Don't live a life where you're going to die with regrets, Fe._

"I won't!" Felix barked.

_Felix. Listen to me…_

Felix launched a fist at the brick wall above the fireplace, creating a large crack in the brick wall. He pulled his fist towards him and stared down at his bruised, grazed and slightly bloodied hand.

"I wonder what my blood looks like?" Felix thought aloud, walking off to find a healer nearby, thankful Glenn had gone quiet.

Years had passed since the Tragedy of Duscur. His father had informed him that he'd been enrolled into the Officer's Academy at Garreg Mach Monastery, where Rodrigue himself had once been enrolled alongside the late King of Faerghus, Lambert Egitte Blaiddyd.

Felix found it painfully ironic that such a scenario would play out once again, once it came to his attention that Dimitri, the late King's son would be attending the Officer's Academy as well.

He couldn't help but wonder if it was all planned from the start by his father. Felix wanted desperately to distance himself from the boar, but the idea of training to his heart's content away from home was significantly more enticing than doing it in the stuffy castle back at home. He eventually made peace with the idea as best he could, the day of arrival to Garreg Mach happening faster than he could comprehend. The day of arrival, he managed to settle in as best he could, finding the training grounds soon after, watching as some of the Knights of Seiros were hacking away at the straw dummies on the ground.

"Finally. Something worth my time," Felix grinned, only two steps taken in before he heard a yelp and a crash nearby. Felix furrowed his brows and peeked back outside to see a petite girl on the ground, with an older woman helping her up as a barrel rolled by.

"H-How did that barrel get there?!" she exclaimed.

Felix shrugged and headed to the training grounds to kill time until their first day at the officer's academy began. 

* * *

Despite the shades of black and white that constantly clouded her vision, Annette made the most of it. She'd always played colour guessing games with her mother and father when he wasn't on a mission for the Kingdom using the various fruits they'd bought from the market. If her mother wanted to get extra crafty, she'd switch the usual colour of apple she bought from the to innocently mess with her daughter's chances of 100% winning them game: along with the occasional exotic fruit the merchants would somehow manage to import from Almyra, Brigid and Dagda.

They always tasted the best too.

One day she brought home quite the peculiar bunch of fruits.

At least she thought they were.

"Pineapple! Yellow and green!" Annette grinned as she excitedly sat on her chair at the dinner table, pointing out the colour of each fruit. "Strawberries! Red and green!"

Her mother smiled at her, pinching Annette's cheeks lightly. "Right you are, little one," she said before finally pulling out a small box that contained fruit Annette had never seen before. The fruit in question were rather small and had a strange oval shape to them.

"Hmmm…" Annette wondered, looking at the strange looking fruit. "Mama? What's this?"

"Miracle fruits! What colour do you think they are?"

Annette looked at the fruits again. "They look like fat cherry tomatoes, so… red?"

Annette's mother laughed with a nod of her head. "Yes, Annette, that's correct. Fat cherry tomatoes… that's a very unique way to come to that conclusion, smart girl."

The little redhead's face brightened. "Of course I'm smart! Daddy says I'm going to inher… inhere…? Inherent…?"

"Inherit?"

"Yeah! Daddy's says I'm going to inherit all the land that Daddy owns!" Annette cheered excitedly standing on the chair stretching her arms out to her sides. "But I have to get smarter! So I can work to help everyone I can!" Annette exclaimed putting her hands on her hips with a wide grin.

Her mother put her finger to her lips to quiet her down. "Now, now, child. Inside voices, remember? Your father's had a long day you know…"

"Oh, sorry," she sheepishly smiled. She stared incredulously at the fruit., tearing the pulp from the seed if twas surrounding. "Mama? Do you think I'll ever see colour?"

Her mother looked at her with a sad smile. "Of course you will, little one. Why do you ask?"

"Um… well, it's just that, none of the boys at school are my soulmates, and they all think I'm kind of weird," Annette mumbled, biting her lips. "I think they said once I-"

Her mother pressed a finger to Annette's lips. "Don't finish that sentence young lady," she said, her tone becoming stern. "Don't listen to what those boys have to say. You're an extremely smart girl with the natural knack for using magic. And besides, you'll find your soulmate one day, my beautiful girl; and when you do, your life will become better for it," she reassured Annette.

"But even so, just remember that even if you meet your soulmate, that doesn't mean you'll be in love with them, or stay in love with them. This soulmate business is not as lovey dovey as it's always cracked up to be. My soulmate, for example? She and I never fell in love- not mutually anyway."

Annette blinked. "She?"

"Mhm," her mother nodded. "The world lit up like never before when I met her, but I knew she wasn't _the one_," she emphasised. "And it broke her heart; and it broke mine to see the way she tried to hide away from me, the way she processed my rejection of her feelings. I loved her, just… not in the way _she_ wanted. It took some time for her to overcome it, but she eventually did it. It wasn't until I met your father that I knew I found the one who I wanted to dedicate my life to. When you find your soulmate Annette, know that they don't have to be the one you stay with forever. After all, all it's ever done for me is break hearts..."

Annette frowned at her mother, unable to comprehend the sadness behind her story and expression. "What happened to your soulmate?"

The older woman leaned back in thought. "I believe she eventually moved to Dagda. She's been married to the current ruling Queen of the country after the Queen's husband passed away for quite some time now; quite the upgrade in lifestyle for a commoner, I can imagine. We occasionally send letters to each other but we haven't seen each other in years," she reminisced. "But enough reminiscing about the past, lets focus focus on the here and now. So eat up! The fruit won't eat themselves will they?"

Annette grinned as she dug in.

Some time later, a messenger came to their home, to deliver news for her father. He was silent for the rest of the night, turning in early. He became emotionally distant extremely quickly towards his family, much to Annette's confusion.

Eventually he disappeared.

In light of this, Annette tried her best to ask anyone she could in Dominic territory if they'd seen her father, but to no avail. When it became clear he went on self-exile and wasn't coming back, she cried herself to sleep that night.

Soon after, her uncle took her in, and enrolled her into Fhirdiad's School of Sorcery after witnessing her natural talent for magic first hand.

In the time she had spent night after night studying, she eventually put the thoughts of soulmates and love into the back of her mind. Her mother had warned her many times to be wary of soulmates and love, that in her closely guarded experience, expressing love was much easier than finding it in the first place. Her mother's words were often cynical and filled with pessimism, something Annette had begun to notice more after her father had left; words Annette heard, but never fully understood. She was the total opposite of her mother, comparatively speaking, being a bright ball of energy that always looked on the bright side of things, expressing herself with an optimistic streak. Despite all her mother's warnings, Annette couldn't help but feel the tiniest bit excited for when she'd meet her soulmate.

Even if her father disappeared, she knew that she could use that grief to fuel herself, to become stronger; which eventually culminated in Annette eventually coming to the conclusion that based on accounts of her father from her mother, uncle and other people close to him, that he would never abandon the Kingdom, nor the Church despite his self-exile. The only logical choice left was to work her way up as quickly as possible to get into Garreg Mach Monastery, to which she achieved thanks to the support of her close friend Mercedes she met at the School of Sorcery.

And maybe, just maybe she'd be able to convince him to come home.

On her first day at Garreg Mach, she'd spent her day searching for her father, asking around for anyone that had hair that looked remotely like hers. To her disappointment, all she received was a resounding 'No'.

"Oh Mercie, what am I going to do?," Annette groaned.

"Well, you can just… not give up?" Mercedes suggested with a soft smile from her left.

"Yes, I know. I know it wasn't going to be easy, it's just that… I wish it was," Annette pouted, looking away from her. Annette's head tilted as her eyes locked onto a certain young man, with a training sword at his side, a grin grew on his lips as he approached the training field doors.

"Is that…?"

Annette isn't given a chance to finish her sentence, tripping over a fallen barrel, thankfully landing on her arms, only slightly grazing the skin under her sleeves. The redhead groaned in pain, as Mercie helped her to her feet.

"Oh, Annie! Are you okay?"

"H-How did that barrel get there?!" she exclaimed in utter frustration. If this was some practical joke by the Goddess, it wasn't funny anymore.

Mercedes giggled, pressing her hands against Annette's skin to heal the grazes on her skin. "Falling for Mr. Fraldarius already, are we?"

Annette went red before groaning in embarrassment. "Mercie, no!" Annette grumpily folded her arms "Besides, he sounds like a jerk anyway. Have you heard the way he talks to Dimitri? He calls him a 'boar!' Honestly... 

* * *

It had been a month since the school year started, and all the new students were settling in quite nicely. The Blue Lions had been surprised to learn that a recent ex-mercenary was to be their teacher for the school year- Professor Byleth as she went by. Felix was skeptical at first while conversely, Annette believe their new teacher would greatly affect their growth for the better. Felix soon had a change in heart after losing quite convincingly to their new professor, often requesting that they spar for Felix to get stronger.

Thankfully, Annette's hunch had been right. Their professor, despite being an ex-mercenary, was well equipped with knowledge of various weapons and magic, and at times, shocked Annette with the sheer skill and power of the magic she summoned.

As fate would have it, due to them overworking themselves within the first month alone, she gave Felix and Annette permission to skip class for one day, seeing how worn out they'd become.

Annette, spurred on by her professor's kindness, made her way to the greenhouse to relax. Thankfully, the greenhouse keepers were out in town to purchase some supplies, so Annette took the opportunity to work on watering the plants for them- even if she was assigned to do it the next day.

Felix, spurred on by his professor's kindness, made his way to the training grounds to do anything but relax. He understood where his professor's fears came from, but ultimately cared little for it. If he did not constantly put his body through the training it required to become faster, stronger, then he could not protect those that needed it. Not as a knight, but as an ordinary human ought to do for another that's in danger.

Which he would've done if the training ground doors weren't locked.

_Don't push yourself._

Felix growled in frustration, opting to wander around the grounds instead. Eventually, he strolled passed the lake, grunting back at the fisherman on the pier who wished him good morning before noticing that the greenhouse door was slightly open. Out of sheer curiosity, he made his way to look inside, no having the place a decent look, even when he was tasked to water the plants as a part of his chores for the day.

Before his hand reached the door a strange melody reached his ears. Felix furrowed his brows and called out he was coming in, only to be met with that small redhead girl singing a song about food, a silly one, if he were being frank with a dance that… really could not be counted as a dance; although, the fencing footwork he saw did catch his attention.

Felix cleared his throat. "I hope I'm not interrupting."

The shorter girl sputtered in surprise and spun around to meet Felix's eyes. "F-Felix! What are you doing… here?" she whispered at the end as the two of them froze in place. A strange bubbling feeling began to simmer within the two, rising up through their bodies and spilling light into their eyes. The two closed their eyes and shielding themselves, both slowly opening them, going back to staring at each other. Even though neither of them knew what colour was what before, instinctively, the colour of their respective soulmate's eyes, the world around them infinitely more brighter than it had been before.

"Orange…"

_When you find your soulmate Annette, know that they don't have to be the one you stay with forever…_

_This soulmate business is not as lovey dovey as it's always cracked up to be._

_After all, all it's ever done for me is break hearts.._

__"Blue…"

_The world lit up like never before when I met her, but I knew she wasn't the one...  
_  
_Seeing in colour is like seeing the world in a whole new light. Everything is brighter and more alive than you can comprehend, little one._

_I know it's very hard for you to understand, but when the time comes, you'll know what I'm talking about. It's something that just… clicks, in your head._

And like his father said, it clicked for the both of them.

Felix's jaw nearly dropped, never realising just how _cute_ she was. Felix was almost disgusted at himself for thinking that, and knowing that voice of Glenn in the back of his head was smirking at him right now, assuming he could make such a face. Her hair was strikingly bright, and it suited her go-happy and bright attitude it was just so… perfect.

Despite her mother's warnings and cautions, Annette threw them to the wind, nearly fainted at the sight of her world being showered in colour before her; but nothing was so bright as the eyes of Felix Hugo Fraldarius. She'd be lying if she said he wasn't one of the most handsome boys she'd ever met, his face was just so… perfect.

A strange feeling set within the both of them, their hearts pounding at a million miles an hour as their faces flushed red.

It was then they knew.

_He's the one._

_She's the one._

_Oh, she's definitely the one._

They snapped out of their daze, Felix jolting upon hearing Glenn's voice, Annette following right after. Before he could internally chastise the voice for ruining the strangely liberating moment, the weight of what just happened crashing upon both of them.

"You're my soulmate," Annette says, her lip quivered a little.

The red on Felix's face disappeared, paling very quickly instead. "You're my soulmate," he repeated.

_Oh._

_Oh no._

* * *

Thank you to everyone who has given me reviews, follows and favourites on my fics so far! It's all very much appreciated and was all a great motivator for pushing myself to put out a fic for every day of Felannie Week so far!

For those wondering, we still have two days left. The next one is a fairly long one, and it may come close to the length of my Day 2 fic. Not sure so far, but we'll see! I hope you all look forward to reading those soon, enjoyed reading this fic, and most importantly, have a good one!

P.S friendly reminder that reviews, follows and favourites are fuel! ;)


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